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To God be the Glory!!

My book, Help! I’m So Lonely, is finally going to print. I knew it was scheduled for release this year, but am thrilled the time is getting close. Today I approved the final draft from my editor at Shepherd’s Press.

But that’s not why I’m so excited. I’m excited because I was overwhelmed by the help, hope and understanding this book provides.

I wrote it so long ago that I’d forgotten some of what I’d written. Reading it today was like reading someone else’s work, in that regard. And how terrible it would have been if I’d hated it, or picked it to pieces, or thought, “Wow, this needs to go back to the drawing board.” But I didn’t. I loved it!

Please don’t label me as conceited. It’s not so much my work that I appreciated, as my reaction to it. Early on I noticed my eyes filling with tears as I read, and those tears gathered slowly and held until chapter 3 when they began to flow down my cheeks–as I began reading passages from the Bible that offered such compassionate understanding of the pain of loneliness, then transitioned to the “rest of the story,” the hope they provided. God’s word moved me to tears as I considered His promises, His work and His love to His suffering children.

I realized something. When I wrote this book, I intended to come alongside those going through the heartbreak of loneliness. But as I continued to read, I realized this book may be helpful to anyone who is suffering—not just the lonely. I didn’t expect that because it wasn’t even in my mind to do that.

Just shows you how gracious God is, and how He answered my prayer, “Lord, direct my thoughts and words while I write this book. Let this be YOUR book, Christ Jesus. And use it as You deem appropriate in the lives of those who suffer.” I start every project with these or similar words. But reading this little booklet after all this time, I realized He gave me abundantly more than I asked for—He extended the outreach I originally planned.

I can’t wait for this one to come out. I think God will use it to help many people and to minister to their hearts through His word—as it did to mine just now.